Crafty Christmas

One of my favorite things about Christmas is making stuff!  Stuff for other people, stuff for my house, stuff for myself, stuff with my kids, and of course stuff to eat.  Anywho, it seems like this year there has been no time for anything like that and I miss it.  So, I walked away from the laundry and dirty dishes for a day and I made some stuff.

My friend showed me how to make these paper stars. I hung them over my kitchen table and I think that they are lovely. I didn't take pictures while making them but I found an almost exact tutorial in blog land if you want to make some too. I am thinking about spray painting them after Christmas so that I can leave them up all year long!

Every year we go through the pain and drama of family pictures.  While, the pictures usually turn out okay, I don't know if they have ever been worth the money, tears, or the suffering.  This year we took our own pictures in the back yard.  I am certainly no professional but I think they turned out pretty cute.

They are all saved on my computer and I haven't had time to have any professionally printed but I did Mod Podge them onto some cheap 8x10 canvas that I found. I love the vintage look it gave the photographs.

How do you do it?  Cut some tissue paper a little larger than your printer paper. Place the tissue paper on your printer paper and tape down the excess tissue paper onto the back of your printer paper. Run it through your printer and then peel off the tape. Put a very thin layer of Mod Podge on your canvas and carefully lay the tissue paper on top. That's it!

 

To make the JOY sign I just Mod Podge some wooden letters with Christmas paper.  I also put a little card stock under the bell to make it stand.  For the tree in the back I used a Styrofoam cone. I cut strips of paper, glued the ends together and starting from the bottom began gluing them to the cone.  For each row the strip of paper should be a little smaller. For the star on top, I made a miniature version of the stars above.

For my grandma's this year I embroidered these geography pillows. I saw them for sale online for about $30 and thought I could totally do that for a whole lot less. I hope they LOVE them as much as I do.

For Scott's birthday we made him a Butterfinger cake. Yes, the kid's and I sampled it before we gave it to him. Sad, huh?  But, it looked so yummy we lost all control. 

Here is the recipe:

Yellow Cake Mix

1 Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Jar of Smucker's Caramel Ice Cream Topping

1 tub of Cool Whip

4 Butterfinger Candy Bars

Bake the cake following the directions on the box.  While still warm poke holes in it and pour on the condensed milk and caramel topping. Let cool completely and frost with Cool Whip.  Then top with crushed candy bars!